Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/callanish/sermons/20778/the-eternal-purposes-of-god-in-christ-jesus/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] We can resume our public worship of God by singing to his praise from Psalm 95. Psalm 95, reading from the beginning, O come let us sing to the Lord, come let us everyone a joyful noise make to the rock of our salvation. [0:23] Let us before his presence come with praise and thankful voice. Let us sing psalms to him with grace and make a joyful noise. For God a great God and great King, above all gods he is. [0:40] Depths of the earth are in his hand, the strength of hills is his. To him the spacious sea belongs, for he the same did make. The dry land also from his hands, its form at first to take. [0:55] O come and let us worship him. Let us bow down with all, and on our knees before the Lord our maker let us fall. For he is our God, the people we of his own pasture are. [1:11] And of his hand the sheep, today if ye his voice will hear. And so on. We can sing these verses, Psalm 95. From the beginning, O come let us sing to the Lord. [1:24] Come let us everyone. O come let us sing to the Lord. [1:41] Come let us everyone. A joyful night make to the Lord. [2:00] Of the Lord. Of the earth's salvation. Let us sing to the Lord. Let us sing to the Lord. [2:14] the Lord. He is телеф issued. O may. His presence come with praise and heartful voice. [2:30] Spread just sing songs, hear Him with grace, and make a joyful noise. [2:51] For God I great, God I am King. [3:02] Above all God He is, depths of the air are in His hand. [3:23] The strength of Him exists, to Him the spirit of the sea belongs. [3:45] For here the same could make the dry hand gone so wrong. [4:03] His hands is far not first to take. [4:15] O come and let us worship Him. [4:27] Let us back down with all and all our needs before the Lord. [4:48] The maker in the storm. For He is their God, the people we. [5:09] Of His own passion I. And of His hand the sheep to thee. [5:29] If He is mine will hear. Let's join together in prayer. [5:45] Let's pray. O Lord God in heaven, help us to draw near to what we are taught is a throne of grace. [5:58] That we may receive from your hand sufficient to meet the needs of the day. Whatever the need may be, whatever knowledge we have offered, and we are thankful that we come to one who knows that there is before Him those who are a needy and a fallen people. [6:25] Who have temporal and who have spiritual needs. And that you have adequate provision for all who may come. [6:38] And that is instilled within us through the teaching of your own word. We give thanks for all who have not only been taught through the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament, concerning the provision that you have for all who would seek it at your hand, but that they have discovered this to be so for themselves. [7:10] And that they have repeatedly come and never gone away empty handed. Sometimes what they have sought by way of fear may have differed to what they have received. [7:30] But with the light that your word gives to the provision as you have provided it, they are perfectly satisfied that you have given to them what was indeed needed. [7:55] We give thanks for your word as it reminds us of the complex ways in which you seek to provide for your people. [8:10] As we think of your word, it reminds us, as you sent Joseph into Egypt to be able to provide for his father and his brethren. [8:26] The path that was taken in order that that would take place would surprise many, and even your own people when they reflect upon the many twists and turns there was in the experience of your servant. [8:50] He experienced hurt and he experienced pain. He experienced the dereliction of his home and his blood ties, the enmity of those who were opposed to him in different ways. [9:14] And yet, in the mystery of your providence he was lifted up, to be head and shoulders above all in the kingdom of Egypt apart from one, and that by your own direction. [9:35] There are marvels to behold within your word, as we contemplate the path that you have taken us on, in our parents, our first parents, even in the experience of those who are brothers in the faith and sisters in the faith. [9:56] Even our older brother, as we reflect upon the many things that he had to encounter in order to be a saviour to sinners. [10:09] Help us to appreciate that you are God who is sovereign, and that you do all things well. And as we marvel at our own peculiar circumstances of the present, when we are still embroiled in the aftermath of a pandemic, and when this world is in turmoil because of the hostility that is so apparent, especially as it is displayed in the war that is ongoing, in Eastern Europe we pray that you would remind us that whatever the outcome may be, whatever the aftermath will involve for us, we may think ourselves, remote from many of the things that are going on at the present within the world. [11:11] And yet for you, your people are at the heart of your purposes, and the glory of your name, and you will not suffer the deprivation of any description to affect that glory. [11:27] And we pray that you would remind us of the need that we have to look to yourself at all times, and to see a place to rest in your will for us. [11:41] We would remember before you the needs and the concerns of each individual present, those who are grieving and sorrowful, those who are broken because of the visitations of death. [11:57] As you touch the lives of one and all at some point in our sojourn in this world, you remind us that here we have no continuing city. [12:09] As we look about us and as we search within the folds of our own loved ones, and we see bridges made through the passage of time, we acknowledge that the truth will be fulfilled in our experience also. [12:29] And we ask that you would remind us of the need that there is to take urgent steps in preparing for our own demise. [12:42] It is closer to us this evening than it ever has been. And whatever the new day brings, we acknowledge that there are many who have entered into the year after, not understanding that their close proximity to it was what it was revealed to be. [13:13] So help us to make a haste in making peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, if we have not already done so. [13:24] So direct us to him and help us to trust in him. To bring our loved ones into his presence, even as they are prayed for, be they young or old, be they near or far. [13:44] We pray that you would help us to bear one another's burdens, remembering that there is deliverance to be found at thy right hand. [13:56] We pray that you would bless the gospel to that end, the preaching of the word and the proclamation of the truth, wherever you have sent your own ambassadors so to do. [14:10] We pray that you would own and honour that which is done in your name to the four corners of the earth. And that you would also pray that you would pray that you would encourage those who are waiting upon you at this evening hour, that their waiting would be productive, that they would not be just lying back waiting as if it was an inevitable consequence of your promise. [14:49] But to do so salously, diligently, with great endeavour, beating upon the doors of heaven, that you may come down into our midst. [15:00] Continue to watch over your people in all their circumstances, those under your hand in illness, be they at home or in hospital or where they are being cared for. Remember those whose role it is to minister to their needs. [15:15] In whatever way they are called to do so, may they be equipped to the best of their ability to undertake these duties with care and concern. [15:26] We ask now that you would bless your word to us as we read it, as we reflect on what it says to us. Even in our reading, may we have our eyes fixed upon the truth of God, remembering that it will not fall to the ground without yielding that which you have purposed for it. [15:50] Guide us in it, we pray. Guide us in it, we pray. Cleanse from sin, we ask all in Jesus' precious name. Amen. We are going to read from the New Testament Scriptures Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. [16:12] Ephesians 3. [16:24] For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, Lord, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. [16:47] So I wrote four in few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now, revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. [17:10] That the Gentiles should be fellow-wheres and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God, given unto me by the effectual working of his power. [17:29] And to me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. [17:54] To the intent that now, and to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. [18:20] Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in heaven, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of might by the love of might by the Lord, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. [19:12] Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, and to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. [19:34] The Lord, that his blessing to the Lord, and to his name be the praise. I'm going to sing verses from Psalm 33. [19:47] Psalm 33 at verse 6. Psalm 33 at verse 6. The heavens by the word of God did their beginning take, and by the breathing of his mouth he all their hosts did make. [20:12] The waters of the seas he brings together as an heap, and in storehouses as it were he laith up the deep. Let earth and all that live therein with reverence fear the Lord. [20:26] Let all the world's inhabitants dread him with one accord. For he did speak the word, and done it was without delay. [20:37] Established it firmly stood, whatever he did say. God doth the counsel bring to naught which heathen folk do take, and what the people do devise of none effect doth make. [20:54] O, but the counsel of the Lord doth stand forever sure, and of his heart the purposes from age to age endure. [21:05] And so on. We can sing these verses. Psalm 33 from verse 6 to 11. The heavens by the word of God did their beginning take. [21:18] The heavens by the word of God did their beginning take. [21:37] And by the breathing of his mouth he all their hosts did make. [21:54] The waters of the sea he brings together as an heap. [22:11] And in stone houses as it were he layeth up the deep. [22:28] Let earth and all that live therein with reverence fear the Lord. [22:47] Let all the world's inhabitants threat him with one accord. [23:05] For he did speak the word, and done it was without delay. [23:22] He's established in the earth. He did speak the word, and done it was without delay. He did speak the word, and done it was without delay. He did speak the word, and done it was without delay. He did speak the word, and done it was without delay. The Lord has told the Lord. He did speak the word, and done it was without delay. [23:37] The Lord has told the Lord, and done it was without delay. The counsel bring to God, which he's thankful to take. [23:58] And what the people who he wise of none effect make. [24:15] O bet the counsel of the Lord does stand for membership. [24:32] And all to start the purposes from age to age endure. [24:55] We can turn to the passage that we have read together from the New Testament Scriptures. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. [25:08] And we can read from chapter 3. And we can read at verse 8. [25:22] And to me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, and to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the Lord, according to the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. [26:15] and so on. Particularly the words that we have there in verse 11, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. [26:31] We can safely say, from the reading of the Scriptures, that the sovereignty of God is something that is clearly declared, not only in the Old Testament, but in the New. [26:56] And the Apostle Paul, I suppose, is someone who majors on that, amongst all other things that he speaks about. [27:07] He speaks frequently about God's overruling of all things. [27:19] And you can see that, you know, he might not just say, I'm going to speak about God's sovereignty, I'm going to speak about God's kingship, I'm going to speak about his lordship. [27:44] He will say that, and he does say that, but you can see from his comments that that is something that he believes in. [27:54] without feeling the need to elaborate, or to say, this is a doctrine, and this is the doctrine I am going to declare to you. [28:08] Just a simple example from this chapter that we've read. It begins, For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. [28:26] That's a simple statement. And yet, if you ask the question, how is Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles? [28:38] Was it Jesus Christ who was responsible for imprisoning him? Did Christ personally put him in chains? [28:51] And obviously, the answer can't be yes. And yet, that's how Paul describes it, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. It was the Roman authorities who put him into prison. [29:05] And he was there at their behest, at their direction. And yet, undergirding what Paul knew to be the truth was this fact that God was sovereign. [29:20] And God was in some way responsible for his being put in prison. And while he may not at that moment in time understand why God had ordained his imprisonment, it was still something that he could confidently assert and maintain that God was sovereign in doing that. [29:51] We see other occasions, for example, when he is again in prison and he explains how he sees for himself good coming out of that. [30:06] He sees the ability that is given to him to preach the gospel to his guards and to speak to them of Christ. A privilege that would not be his if he was not in prison. [30:23] Now, I think that is in a nutshell what is true about trying to interpret providence. [30:34] Sometimes God will allow us to understand that he is doing something and that he has given us the information necessary to understand what he is doing, why he is doing it, what the outcome of what he is doing will be. [30:57] But more often than not, what will happen is we will be left and much of what God is doing may be kept hidden from us. [31:08] But the fact of the matter is Paul, like many others, know that this God that is his God, the God that he bears witness to, is a God that he knows to be sovereign and to be in control of all that is there to be seen. [31:30] The prophet Isaiah describing the God of heaven as the creator God, not only is he speaking about his power exercised in creating the world, but in executing his power in sustaining that world in a way that he himself is bringing to fruition his purposes within it. [32:06] In Isaiah chapter 40 we see the question asked by the Lord, who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with his span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance who has directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counsel has taught him with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are accounted as the small dust of the balance behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren moreover whom he did predestinate whom he also called whom he called them he also justified whom he justified them he also glorified and so on words that you are familiar with no doubt and words that you perhaps have cited in order to comfort yourself and to comfort others when they are confronted by events that are difficult to unravel but it's not always the case that the truth that [34:46] God has supplied us with is fully understood it's not always the truth that even having at our fingertips the information that allows us to understand that such a truth is the truth of God it doesn't necessarily mean that we are fully equipped or prepared to accept the teaching that is brought to our attention there many of us were taught the words of the shorter catechism for example and in the catechism the question is asked what are the decrees of God the decrees of God are his eternal purposes according to the counsel of his will whereby for his own glory he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass and we were taught that and we in some way we took that to be a truth that was the truth of God as we have it in the scripture but when we delve into that statement that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass that's when we begin to struggle especially if what he has foreordained is something that is not pleasant to us something that we are not equipped to deal with at the time but what we need to remind ourselves of is that the words of our text here brings everything into one focus and that is that all things are purposed by [36:49] God as he has it here his eternal purposes which he purposed in Christ Jesus on the Lord our Lord that the glory of God as it is in Christ will be revealed ultimately as something that is outworked in the providence that we are involved in in this world our providence my providence your providence the events that mark your life all of these things good and bad the things that are mysterious the things that are plain all of these things work together for God's glory as it is in Christ Jesus and that is something the apostle wishes the reader to understand doctrines that we have in the scripture that we cannot find answers to in this world the doctrine of election the doctrine of predestination the doctrines that that take us beyond this world back into eternity where God has decreed the events that your life and my life have been touched by these doctrines they are doctrines that we must close in with by faith believing that they are God's doing they are [38:32] God's way of working out events to his own glory the the name of of well I'm sure I could speak of many of the theologians who have tried to explain the mysteries of some of these doctrines that have their root as it were in eternity the doctrine of election it's not a it's not a comfortable doctrine for many people even within the church the doctrine that has at its heart the decree of God that God has elected some to everlasting life which which instantly takes away glory the glory from man because before man was even able to draw breath [39:40] God in his wisdom had seen fit to elect some of the race of Adam to inherit to come to eternal life and that is anathema to the thinking of many people but Robbie Duncan whose name you're familiar with once said the whole spring of salvation is in God's election you know it doesn't matter what what you think of of the gospel doesn't matter what you think of Christ you have to understand that God elected some everlasting life and he did so in Christ and it is something that you go beyond this world to find it is in God's election that you find the wellspring of salvation but he says this this stream of salvation flows out before us in a free gospel and we are to drink at the water not at the fountainhead but as it flows by us in other words [41:02] Robbie Duncan there is acknowledging the difficulty there is in trying to understand the doctrine as it is presented to the senses of mere men and women because when you and I go back into the realms of eternity where we have no foothold the place that rightly and properly belongs to the trinity before the world was before the creation of the universe before there was a star in the sky where God was a habitual resident whose activity there involved the election of fallen sinners even before the sin was in their heart it was still in the mind of God as something that he was going to deal with that is a mystery and because it's so mysterious then we dismiss it out of hand as if it can't be because of its mystery but the fact of the matter is the [42:17] Bible discloses it discloses it to us as such and the comfort for for us who believe the word that speaks of it even truths that we cannot fully grasp they are they shall comfort for the believer in knowing that it is through the gospel that men and women are called to come to faith what God has done before is in many respects something that they can believe in and trust in and to a degree understand but the truth for them that is important is the truth that the gospel is preached to sinners calling them to Christ and Christ is the one that God has provided by which sinners will experience salvation that is something you can understand that is something you are equipped to understand however mysterious the will of [43:25] God is in bringing this to to path maybe you're saying well I don't understand that well I was thinking how can I explain this maybe I can't explain it because it's in many respects inexplicable there are things that are mysterious because they are things that lie in the heart of God which you and I cannot delve into there is a loch at the bottom of our craft in Shabost it's a small loch a fresh water loch sometimes in the summer you can walk across that loch to the other side when we were children we were warned against doing that because there were deep holes into which you might fall and the loch itself was shallow but these holes existed and you never knew when you would come across them now whether you experienced that for yourself or not you were told you were expected to believe and you were a fool if you went ahead and did what you were told not to for fear that you would succumb to the danger that was there now that's a trivial illustration and for many of you it means nothing but there are oceans that you know of in this world that you have never ventured into that you would never be able to wade in that you are taught within the books of the experts in geography and oceanography these oceans are miles and miles deep they are so deep that you can't reach the ground in them no human being is able to fathom the depths of that ocean but some people are able to tell you they exist and the depth and miles and miles and the fathoms that exist are there and it's a an inescapable truth now you don't have to plumb the depths to know that that is the way it is there is evidence there is experience of some who have been able to at least go part of the way into these depths and to prove their existence now if you were to treat [46:10] God's word in the same way that you treat the proofs that oceanoclophers have supplied then you would be quite content to believe the word and the word is saying to you that there are depths to the knowledge of God that you are not able to plumb that you are not able to fathom that there are things that are true about God which he has chosen not to reveal they are hidden mysteries that he has kept hidden and kept mystery kept mysterious but there are truths which he is pleased to disclose and this is one of them a truth concerning his own glory as it is in Christ Jesus that he has worked his purposes and that his purposes are working towards a conclusion that he has purposed a plan that he has created in the realms of eternity and that had been disclosed that a plan [47:25] I think that some things that you would have to watch that I would have to watch anyway there is but one plan not several but one and that plan God has chosen to reveal part of it and the part that he has chosen to reveal to you concerns his son Christ Jesus and his glory and his purpose in the salvation of sinners so these three things we can think about briefly first of all that God has a purpose that what God is doing is purposeful it is not what is contained within his purposes for this world within his providence is with the intent of securing an end with which he is contained which will reveal his glory and which will secure for you if you are his a greater glory than you have ever experienced before and for those who are not his there will be a disclosure of greater woe than they have ever thought possible it is [48:47] God's purpose it is God's eternal purpose and it is God's eternal purpose as it is in Christ Jesus Christ is central to it God now as I said some people would think of God's plans or God's purposes strictly speaking he has but one plan and one purpose the one that he has chosen to reveal to us through his gospel as long as we bear in mind the purpose of which Paul is speaking here Paul repeatedly makes reference to that if you go back to the very beginning of this epistle the first chapter we read in verse nine having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in [49:55] Christ both which are in heaven and which earth even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will and so on will we have we have to bear in mind the link that there is with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and that is all important as far as the disclosure of [50:55] God's will is concerned the commentator Charles Hodge explains it in this way everything is comprehended in his purpose and everything is ordered by his efficient control it was both foreknown and foreseen yet at the same time there is no violence done to the nature of his creatures or their constitution yet another mystery if the person who confronts the gospel insists that everything that God does must be understood by them accepting what God does on their terms alone then you're in dire straits because what [52:00] God is doing while he may have revealed what he is doing for the ends that he has in view the salvation of sinners the glory of his name through the gospel of his grace for the blessing of those who are willing recipients of that gospel willing recipients of the mercy that the gospel holds out to them in Christ as indeed it has to be said the condemnation of those who reject that gospel the glory will be his ultimately as well because those who reject the gospel will answer to him because of the rejection of the gospel it is the will of a sovereign within which operates his creatures fulfilling his will even when their actions are contrary to it I think we'll return to that again but if you think what we had in the morning there when you saw a raid against [53:10] Christ a battery of false accusers false witnesses false judges each one cooperating with the sole intent to destroy the name of Christ and to cut off his life from this world what they were doing as they did that was fulfilling the will of God they were acting within the will of God and at the same time they are accountable to that God for their actions for which they are culpable for which they are answerable God's eternal purpose somebody has put it like this there is never a moment in [54:11] God's plan when it is not fully formed and that is something because of our own nature because of our own experience we have plans a plenty we we have been very meticulous in setting them out sometimes maybe mentally maybe even on paper and we have decided this is how we are going to do things this is how we are going to execute this plan this is the ultimate end of this plan this is what is going to result from our plan and yet what happens something occurs takes place and our plan doesn't need to be turned upside down maybe one part of it is unrealized so we go back to the drawing board we try plan [55:11] B we tweak this and we do something else there is not a moment in the experience of the divine that such a thing will happen no matter how remarkable it seems no matter how unseemly it seems no matter how it appears on the face of it to fly in the face of God's will God's purposes God's decree demands that all things work together for the good of them that are his because the glory of Christ is tied into theirs go back again to chapter 1 verses 9 to 10 read them again we must bear in mind that what occurs in time God has decreed in eternity in the book of Acts the words are plain known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world and you know it says from the beginning of the world world but it means that this world which is set into operation by the word of his power in the space of six days [56:31] God created this world and all in it at the beginning and everything that was following on from that nothing took place that was not within the orbit of his influence without sin being included but then again how could sin operate within that scheme without God in some way being accused of being instrumental in ordaining it that is not what it means by the will of God being fulfilled in that way if you remember how the prophet Balaam a false prophet a prophet who did not fully comprehend the God that he was speaking to or from he you find in [57:35] Romans 23 this said of him God is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good there's a way in which we must think of God working within this world where we can never attribute to him wrong doing the wrong that is done within the world is under girded by the sovereign good of God but he permits within that will of his evil to exist within the world in which he is sovereign that is a mystery there's no easy answer to the question of evil within this closed system of God's sovereign control but that's the way it is here [58:37] Paul tells the Ephesians that he has revealed to us the hidden matter of his word but what was revealed was hidden from all eternity evil men acted in concord to bring about this crucifixion well this brings us to the final point here the centrality of Jesus Christ to the plan Christ is God's [59:37] Alpha and Omega he is at the beginning he is at the middle and at the end of God's purposes his eternal purposes he has decreed that his only begotten son would be at the heart of his revelation at the heart of his purposes as they apply to fallen man and fallen woman you go back again to chapter 1 and verses 9 and 11 9 to 11 there and you'll see how Paul speaks of it having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him God sees fit to reveal his purposes to him as it is related to the person of the [60:43] Lord Jesus Christ I'm not saying that what I'm bringing to your attention here is not a mystery I'm not saying that it's difficult to grasp the significance of it or the truth of it the truth of it is there for you to wrestle with the truth of it is there for you to to lift up God before your mind sigh I've said it often our current society cannot live with a God such as the God of scripture if they want God at all that is on their terms and the God that they want on their terms is a God they want to bring down to their level because a [61:43] God who is high and lifted up is a God that is in taral to them a God that they cannot live with a God that they would not want to encounter in any way shape or form because he says simply by revealing who he is something about them that they are unwilling to accept the Westminster confession makes this statement man in a state of innocence he had freedom and power to will and to do that which is good and well pleasing to God but yet mutably so that he might fall from it now men and women still believe that man exists with all the pre-fall attributes that allow him or her to live and do good at will that is no longer an option men and women fell in their first parents and their ability to please [63:04] God by their doing was lost and there is nothing but nothing that will change that it's not to change that that Christ came into the world it is to secure their salvation and to prepare them for an eternity where they will live in his presence with the assurance that they will never fall from that estate into which they have been translated the fact that we do not understand how is of little consequence when we see events involved in the history of this world that are perfectly revealed to be a fulfilling of the will of God then we we need to realize that what he has revealed to us of himself through [64:13] Christ remember the Lord Jesus is the prison by which we see the glory of God and when we see what Christ has done on the cross then we see the God whose will and purpose has been revealed in his truth we may marvel at it we may query how it how it's how its mystery can be plumbed but just like the oceans of which we spoke whose depths are beyond measure well there's a notion here that is beyond our measuring and the need that we have is to be reconciled with what God has revealed to us offered there are many things that he has chosen to reveal to us that should make us content that our God is a great God our saviour is equally great and his will for us is that we would believe in him and that we would have as he says in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith in him well is that you tonight mystery yes there's mystery but there's a [65:36] God here who is willing to accept you even when you're wrestling with the mysteries that he has presented to your senses may he bless those these thoughts let us pray help us oh God to be reconciled to your revealed will for us the word of God is the word that you have said before us in the old and the new testament and we give thanks for that which you have used to bring us to a sense of our need of salvation and the manner in which that salvation is made known to us and how it has been secured for us is something that each one of your people will marvel at in time and in eternity bless us together we pray secure for us a sense of our need of light from your own self that we may see with clarity what is necessary for the salvation of our soul pardon sin in [66:37] Jesus amen we're going to conclude singing from psalm 145 the second version of the psalm psalm 145 and at verse 9 the second version of the psalm good unto all men is the lord or all whose works is messious thy works all praise to thee afford thy saints o lord thy name shall bless the glory of thy kingdom show shall be and of thy power tell that so men's sons whose deeds may know his kingdom's grace that excel we'll sing to verse 15 good unto all men is the lord or all his works his mercy is good unto all men [68:05] The glory of thy kingdom show, shall they adore thy power, tell that soul and soul is made of this kingdom's grace that earth excelled. Thy kingdom hath an end at all, which of which the angels are remaining. The Lord hath poured as all that fall. The custom brings up again. [69:26] The eyes of all things are not in. And only wait, a dear to live. [69:47] And thou in season to just send sufficient food. [70:03] And only wait, a dear to live. Now may grace, mercy, and peace be with God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit rest and abide with you all now and always. Amen.